Back to UB for a day--Visited the summer/winter palace of the last king of Mongolia. Again beautiful silk embroidery, buddha and other statues, series of 22 or 24 buddhas with different faces of feminine characteristics. It is said that every woman can find her face in one of them. They also had 3 identical statues that were part of a set of 10,000 each commissioned from China, Tibet and Poland--interesting variations in the artist quality and attention to detail. Tibet won.
It is no surprise, given the amount of goats, yaks and camels that we have seen that cashmere is a Mongolian big business. We were fortunate enough to tour a cashmere factory seeing the process from the time the wools are sorted, de-haired, cleaned, died and knit into a final garment/product. Quiet an impressive operation, one of the largest in Mongolia--it was well lit, clean and with safe working conditions compared to many factories around the world. They employ 1300 workers in three shifts. A red cashmere hoodie will be coming home with us.
We spent the afternoon shopping on Peace street while others went to visit a Ghengis Khaan complex 50 k out of town. Then a nice evening dinner of spaghetti at the Irish pub.
Morning departure to the airport, delay (time was filled watching a combination inauguration/state of the union ceremony) and then on to the Naadam Festival and another Ger Camp. on the way into town we stopped at a small local Temple just as the monks started a ceremony they perform only about once a month. It is called the Call of the Mountain. The spirits are invited down from the mountain to protect or bless the town. We were invited in to watch by the monks. It was quite a ceremony. Singing, chanting, and offering. Monks ranging from about 10 to elderly. Drums and cymbal accompanying the chants. We were invited to share ceremonial biscuits /cookies after we joined in walk around the temple as offerings were made and shared. After the ceremony we walked the grounds and found a “Amusement Ride”. Nancy, Carole, Phil and Cecelia precariously peddled a cart like thing around a monorail like track. What were they thinking!
A stop snacks and then on to the grocery store for water beer and snacks. Then back in our 4 wheel drive vehicles and up the valley to our Ger. First Yak siting on the way caused a stop/walk across a field.
Nice Ger, but a little lacking in western style bathrooms and showers. Another adventure.
Morning brought the opening ceremonies for the Naadam Festival. Nadaam means games and the festival dates back to Ghengiss Khaan. Side note--it is believed that 6% of the worlds population can be traced back to Ghengiss Khaan. Back to the ceremonies--kind of like the olympics, athletes and sponsors and horses march in a parade around the stadium--a military band units are on the field. Speeches are given, flags raised and troops of kids entertain. It took the entire morning. Then the games began--wrestling, archery, bone throwing and horse racing and some volleyball. We went to the Ger for lunch and then saw a bit of the archery in the afternoon but our timing was off for everything else.
Back to the Ger for the evening--have we mentioned that the roads are not paved, like a tilt-w-whirl redo. Little did we know it would seem smooth compared to the road in a few days to the national park lake--that comes later. Another double rainbow at dinner time. A ger raising demo and then they shared some artifacts that will be placed in the ger as a museum.. A rifle that is 150 years old, a bear skin it killed, goat horns, carving and a beautiful chess set. Most mongolians play chess so our Canadian entrant Phil was no match for the owner of the camp. The night concluded with a traditional mongolian dinner and the playing of the traditional horse fiddle.
Horse racing the morning--the race was for 3 year olds and is 30 kilometers across the steppe. They love their horses and the riders are all young boys, mostly bareback. Race takes about 30 minutes, they run full out the whole time. First five place and the last gets the full stomach prize. Our ger camp had two entrants, one came in 4th, the other 20th. The race was attended by thousands, all pushing to get front row views of the finish line, we fended them off for an hour to hold our spots. Our friend Ted protected us the onslaught from the left. Fortunately Nancy was next to someone on a stool so he did not move towards us. The fans run to touch the winning horses in order to have good luck all year. 
Then off the the stadium to watch the 4th and 5th round of the wrestling. Lots of ceremony and dancing the eagle dance by the wrestlers. There are no weight classes so the participants pair off and have a go. The strongest pick their opponents so they can pick anyone. It was surprising to watch the skinny little guys win when they wrestled the heavyweights. Quickness, center of gravity and stamina are all necessities. They stand to wrestle and the first to get the other to ground wins--no time limits or rounds. The winner does an eagle dance around the flag pole and the opponents do an interesting victory/concession dance.
The men wear little wrestling shorts and open vest tops as a result of a women entering long ago dressed as a man. She won and the costumed changed to the current outfit so it would be impossible for a woman to do that again. Women do participate in archery and volleyball. The bone throwing is bit like tidily winks. A launch pad rests on your knee and a square bone is flicked toward a target about 8’ away. It was fascinating. Four participate at a time and the judges chant while they wait for a participant to launch their bone.
Lunch at a hotel in town followed by a smooth highway ride for 100k with a stop at the Deer Stones. And then 35K on a great rutted road. Sue said she would like to get out and walk. But the end took us to a gorgeous lake side setting in the mountains, much like going up north at home. We are about 18K from the Russian border. More on the activities here later. We leave tomorrow morning for UB and then the next day to the Gobi.
Up early this morning so we can write about the last two days by the lake. A stunning setting on a mountain lake. We arrived for dinner and two full days of activities--boat ride to see the reindeer people and their reindeer. We saw three, the heard of forty is across the lake. They live in tepee, with a mongolian name something like wort. Nomadic but children go to school and they get from one side of lake to the other by car. They ride the reindeer with a saddle, but mostly in the winter. We sat in the wort and talked with mom as wood boiled on the wood stove to make pipes. As we looked around we saw a cell phone taped to the wort supports. Floors are dirt covered with hides and we were welcomed with reindeer milk tea. We bought a carved reindeer that her son made. Back by boat along the wooded shore reminded us of many other places is the world but the surrounding shores of steppe and mountains let us know we were someplace special.
Local women come to camp daily to sell Mongolian wears. Had fun shopping and interacting with them. They spread the goods on blankets--jewelry, socks and hats of sheep, yak or camel wool, felt slippers, bone carvings and other wonderful handmade items.
At happy hour we started an archery tournament, which was interrupted by the cows coming to smell the yak skin target. Edith finally chased them away successfully and the games proceeded. Lessons were followed by great cheers as the target was struck. Bow was make of bone and arrows were not exactly straight--a good excuse. And good fun.
Sunday morning we went horseback riding. Handsome, well kept horses from the neighboring herders with herder guides. Up the hill followed by dogs playing, chasing ground squirrels and generally enjoying the event. Once up the hill the land opened before us to gers owned by the herders, we rode for about an hour. Coming back around gave an expansive view of the lake and the shores--it was spectacular, quiet and a wonderful morning.
The afternoon was spent hunting for rocks on the beach. Many look like wood so we are wondering if they are petrified wood. Others glisten as if they are filled with silver and gold, most smoothed over by time. Then there is the quartz. Stunning.
More archery, happy hour, dinner and bed. Every night they build us a fire in the little round wood stove in the middle of the ger and early in the morning they quietly come in to build another. All is quiet until they start the fire with a small portable blow torch. Whoosh. Sounds like hot airs balloons as they make their way from ger to ger.
We were worried when the stove pipe was supported by a rock, eventually after our ger filled with smoke we discovered the rock and rust had punched a whole in the pipe. A new stove arrived yesterday morning--what a difference. Off to the airport.
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